Interview with Amy Young MD, Forensic Pediatrician, Executive Director- Give Something Back

Featuring Executive Director Amy Young from the California Chapter of Give Something Back

Transcript

Interview with Dr. Amy Young

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

children, students, county, san bernardino county, school, life, fontana, child, child abuse, years, program, loma linda, institute, question, clinic, success, educational, educators, leads, mckinney vento

SPEAKERS

Dr. Amy Young, Don

Don  00:04

Hello, my name is Don English director of Children Deserve Success and Executive Director of the San Bernardino County Wide Gangs and Drugs Task Force. And I want to welcome you to our Children Deserve Success Podcast. Twice a month, we will be sending out these recordings regarding all things related to child welfare and attendance, school attendance Review Board, foster youth services, McKinney Vento Homeless Programs in our county, and the San Bernardino County Wide Gangs and Drugs Task Force. This month focus will be an interview with the executive director of Give Something Back California Chapter, Dr. Amy Young. Dr. Young Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you for coming.

Dr. Amy Young  00:46

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Don  00:49

Certainly, if you would, Dr. Young, please describe your background as it relates to your current work.

Dr. Amy Young  00:56

Yes, so I am. I'm a physician, a practicing physician. I'm the chief of the Division of Forensic pediatrics at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital, and the executive director of give something back, you know, for I've worked in the county for about 17 years filling the role of a what we call a child abuse pediatrician. So children who have are suspected victims of child abuse, which can include child sexual abuse, physical abuse and neglect. We are providers who have special training to evaluate children and to provide an opinion, sometimes serve as an expert in court, what we find is that for many children, they end up in the foster care system after an incident like that. And what I have seen over the years is, you know, really not very good educational outcomes for children in foster care. And while I know the work that we're doing as child abuse, pediatricians is important, and making sure children are safe in their home, we do that work hoping to guarantee a good trajectory for their life. And so it became really apparent to me that it wasn't enough what we were doing, and that we really needed to partner with our schools and, you know, staff at schools to see what can we do to help that path after a child is in foster care, particularly with their educational goals. So that's really what Give Something Back is it is a college scholarship and mentoring programs student, pretty intensive student coaching, we prioritize children who have ever been in foster care current or former foster youth, children who've experienced homelessness, or children who have had the incarceration of a parent, we bring them in as early as eighth grade into the program, assign them a professional coach and follow them all the way to completion of their post secondary path. That could be Community College, trade school for your university. We have some scholarships available so that children who have housing insecurity or food insecurity, we can we can take care of that. And so that has been the most fun, I guess, you know, I think to finally stand at some college graduations to see, then, then I really know that we've done all that we could do to really try to help children have a better outcome.

Don  03:19

Wow. I think Dr. Young, you just nailed it. You answered every question that I have for you. 

Dr. Amy Young  03:27

Sorry. 

Don  03:30

All right. So you gave me a brief description of the program. And my next question is, how did you come to be the program start?

Dr. Amy Young  03:40

Yeah. You know, so as a child abuse pediatrician, I just got really connected with some with the children I that I was taking care of. I didn't have much to offer them, though. I mean, as a forensic physician, you evaluate you give an opinion, you testify, you pretty much move on after that we have some of the highest rates of child abuse in our county. And we have a very small team at the time, there was one or two of us practicing. And so certain children I would get connected to would come back and see me check in tell me how they were doing. I wasn't their pediatrician. And I quickly realized that many of them had educational goals and they weren't making much progress on it. And that's what I started doing was coaching them on that trying to reteach myself about Pell grants and Cal Grants and Chafee grants for foster youth. And here I am a physician in a clinic, seeing them and trying to help them navigate, you know, the educational pathways. And a friend of mine at the district attorney's office who I had testified quite a bit in court with happened to be on a random trip, and a friend introduced them to someone his name is Bob Carr. Bob Carr had incredible success in credit card processing. He had the fourth largest credit card company in the nation credit card processing company in the nation. He had sold it. He already had an educate. He already had a scholarship and mentoring program, but it was all back east and he wanted to start it in California. He was actually kind of looking up north. And this district attorney said, you should you should come to San Bernardino County. And he said, you know, he's a math guy. I mean, his, you know, his background in school was all in math, but that's what led him to, you know, computer software. He said, he really wanted to work with foster youth, he had heard that such a small percentage went to college and completed college that he felt like if he was really going to make a difference, that would be where, where the need greatest need was. So she said, Well, then I have this doctor you should meet. So I just thought he was someone with money. And I thought, Well, I'll tell him some stories about these kids that I love so much that aren't progressing in school, don't have money to cover a dorm, have unstable living situations in one scenario child who lived in a car. And and I'll tell him those stories, and maybe he'll donate some money. So I didn't really know about his program. So he came to our children's assessment center, which is our Advocacy Center for Child Abuse Victims. And I gave him a tour. And at the end, he said something like, you know, I'll do it in San Bernardino County, if you'll run it. And I was kind of like, what run what, and that's when he really explained the program to me. And he said, Well, if we do it here, I'll invest $3 million in prepaid scholarships at three schools. The schools are University of LaVerne, Chapman University and Cal State San Bernardino. And we'll purchase roughly 50 spots at each of those schools with this, with this money given up front. So I mean, I couldn't say no to that, right. Like I thought, Okay, this is kind of crazy for me as a physician to think about doing something like this, but I think I can figure it out, you know. So that's what we did. We we got it started, I called on some friends of mine that, you know, that are just like really amazing people who advocate for children that I've known from my prior life, Amber Young, and Jessica Think Binber and Biner and Chris Brown. And so do you guys want to come to this crazy thing with me? And the first kids I enrolled were the children that I had intended to tell Bob about those were like the first kids we brought into the program. And now one of them in a in a semester will graduate with a bachelor's degree in art. Yes, and with debt free. So it's just one of those things. I feel like, you know, when you really care and invest, and keep an open heart, I feel like good things happen that tell you like you're on the right path. Yeah.

Don  07:56

Wow. That's encouraging. So based on what you said, I assume the program has been in effect for four years is that correct?

Dr. Amy Young  08:04

 Yes. Yeah, we I think 2017 is when we got our start.

Don  08:08

Excellent. That is excellent. Doctor Young. So you're starting a new program with the Childern Deserve Success Team, which is a part of San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, and I am the director of that team in mentoring. So it'd be mentoring McKinney Vento, Youth Experiencing Homelessness, foster students and youth of incarcerated parents on our school campuses throughout the county. Can you tell us about that, and how this will be different from what you are ready do at Give Back.

Dr. Amy Young  08:38

So this is this is really the next big thing that we are so excited about. I think, you know, we know that students spend so much time at school, it is really such a huge connection for them, to really recruit students and really help them we need to meet them where they're at, which is definitely on the school campuses. You know, I'm an alumni of Fontana high school, I was born and raised in this area, San Bernardino is where my heart is. When, you know your group brought this chance to us we're like, or, you know, we're all in one of the districts is Fontana School District. And I'm like, Oh, I'll be back at my alma mater again. So I think we're just really excited to bring it to students in a positive way, you know, Give Back is very focused on what is your purpose and your passion? What do you want your life to look like? How do you get there? How do you you do it with a nurturing caring adult in your life? And all we ask is that one day, then you get back. And it's really kind of a simple message that I think resonates with with children, you know, with students. So we're hoping to launch that just within the next couple months and we'll be in 59 schools. Yeah, on the school campuses, you know, delivering the curriculum that we have In a classroom setting with students during the school day, and I think that's also going to teach us a lot about how to reach the greatest number of students, you know, meeting the needs that they have. So we're super excited about.

Don  10:13

For us to be able to link up and leverage resources, it really warms my heart as a 28 year educator. I can sense a connection with you from the time I met you, which leads me to my next question. In a profession that is known to cause compassion, fatigue and burnout, what drives you to continue to develop programs and serve in a way that increases demands on you? So what is your why Dr. Young?

Dr. Amy Young  10:43

Oh, boy, I feel like it changes and evolves, right as, as humans, we're always changing and evolving. I mean, I could say that definitely, for me, connections and relationships are where everything is, for me. I think most people that really know me would say that if there's something I can do to help, I will do it, I will not fail to follow through, and to help in any way that I can. My whole life I've wanted what what about me, my, my passions are my abilities, how can I turn that around to help children? You know, I think if I dig deep, though, you know, growing up, my grandmother was like, my, I just wanted to be her, you know, and my grandmother had been a victim of severe domestic violence. And my grandfather, I never knew him left and left her with six small children. She lived in Fontana, she had a waitressing job, didn't have any education. But she would give in every single way that she could, if she had $1. And a child needed it, she gave it away. And so that, to me was an example early on of where my I valued that in her. Anything I needed, she dropped everything for me. And I thought children deserve that they deserve a safe place to land, where somebody who loves them, cares for them, is willing to put their needs above theirs. And so I think that really taught me to lead with my heart, you know, in my life. And that's really my goal. I want to just leave this place better than I found it for kids, especially in the, in my where I was born and raised, you know, so I think that's my why probably there's other wise too, but

Don  12:35

Wow, amazing. You're amazing. Next question I have for you, I understand that you have some new and exciting engagements coming up? Soon. We'll give you an opportunity to talk about that.

Dr. Amy Young  12:52

Yeah, so I think, you know, part of the vision for us has always been the most holistic approach that we can have. And I think we know we know right? As humans, we're multifaceted, you to learn, you need to be safe at home, to to learn, you need to be healthy, you need your medical needs met, you need your mental health needs met. I mean, we have to approach children as this dynamic, were all of these parts are playing a role in their success. And so from the get go, we have been looking at, we know how to do this piece of child safety. We need to really expand the mental health services that we offer to children incorporate educational advocacy do this all under one roof. So we launched an institute at Loma Linda called the Resiliency Institute for Childhood Adversity. The acronym is RICA. It's one of the 13 Institute's at Loma Linda, which is really huge in academic medicine. Most people focus on Cancer Institute's, Heart Institute's kind of where the big money or research is. And we know though that adverse childhood experiences, those are really probably the number one public health threat because we know that as you experience more adversity in childhood, which leads to toxic stress, if it isn't mitigated leads to chronic morbidity and mortality. So with this new institute, we have now opened a new clinic. And so within our clinic, which we call the Resiliency Clinic at Loma Linda, children can come for primary pediatric care, you know, all the way up to the age of 21. They can come from mental health services, and the educational advocacy piece is embedded in that. So if an eighth grader is in clinic, and talks about their dreams or hopes for their life, what they want, they want to do better in school, they need help to do good in school, we can just hand them off to an educational advocate to make that connection, if they're in crisis or in need of mental health services that's co located so it's an integrated clinic to really reach out to children not just in the foster care system, but that was one of our priorities, but also any child who suffered a high burden of adverse childhood experiences. So we've got the educational advocacy piece going, we just launched the medical clinic in the mental health clinic in January. And we just hope to fill it up with kids that need us, it's our pilot, we'd like to spread this across the county, because you're such a big County, right. And this is located in Loma Linda. So not every child is going to be able to get get there. And really working within our county collaboratives, like with First Five, and Children and Family Services, and public health and Department of Behavioral Health, to take what we've already done at our children's assessment center, and now make this bigger, broader approach. So that's new and exciting. I'm, I've been waiting for it for years. And now I sit in my office and out my window, I can see children coming in and out for medical care. And I know we're like, a little bit closer.

Don  15:54

Absolutely. Right. And you know, with the pandemic, you know, so much trauma, yes, I've been burned, yeah, from just experiences with the pandemic, you know, with our kids not being in school. And then as they return to school, some kids having been, they go, they went from elementary school to high school, because they missed the two years. And that's a huge gap as it relates to not only their academic maturation, but also their emotional maturation. So 

Dr. Amy Young  16:24

absolutely, 

Don  16:25

what you're doing is just phenomenal, and I can't wait to see it to more fruition across our county. And I really don't want to say, but I do believe you're going to have, you're not going to have a problem filling that up. I hope we have a vast need in our county.

Dr. Amy Young  16:40

And I think that's another link with the school school site work that we're doing. We're hoping that as counselors or teachers identify children who have unmet medical needs or mental health needs, we are now giving them a resource to refer children to, and we can see children in a really quick timeframe. So we're hoping that there's even more benefits than we are thinking of right, once we get it going, we'll really see and where other needs or that we could meet also, so

Don  17:10

All right, Doctor Amy Young, one more for you, 

Dr. Amy Young  17:12

Okay. 

Don  17:13

With your vast experience in serving youth, who are most in need? What in your opinion, can we do better as a county to serve students and families?

Dr. Amy Young  17:28

You know, I have to say, I feel like we have to work harder at ways to scale, really getting caring, nurturing adults in children's lives, that can really offer coaching and guidance. I mean, we can develop all sorts of programs and make all sorts of resources. But children need help navigating it, they need to have advocates to help them access it. And you know, they need help through the process. It is handholding. I mean, we do it. Those of us who are parents, we do it for our own children, and every child deserves that. And so I think that we, we know that at the end of the day, when children, especially children who have experienced trauma, it all comes down to one caring, nurturing adult in their lives. And to scale that, for such a large number of children who need it is the challenge that we face. And I think that's, that's what we've got to figure out. And so you know, to start give back and to have our 100 200 students, and now you all are giving us the opportunity to reach out to 1000 students. I mean, we're we're making our way, at least with our part and our role in it. But yeah, I do I do see that as the greatest need.

Don  18:40

Yeah, it's all about linking and leveraging resources. And then, you know, really being able to scale as you said, I want to thank you. I want to thank you for driving here. And in talking to me, and, you know, everything you said kind of resonates with me because again, I've worked with the most marginalized youth throughout my 28 years in education. Many who fall into the subgroups that you described foster homeless, children of incarcerated parents, and many other categories that you named. So I want to thank you for your work. I think what you're doing is tremendous. And I see your organization growing, and it's a great thing and I look forward to you continuing to serve. Thank you for the families in our county.

Dr. Amy Young  19:29

Yeah, thank you, Don. I mean, just today even driving, I was thinking where I was, you know, 15 years ago just trying to learn the field of forensics and children and injuries and what they mean and how to help them how to help make them safe in their homes. And now today I'm driving to county, you know, superintendents offices to get to talk to educators and work more with educators. That's really like a vision that's coming to life. So it means a lot to me to be here today. To walk in and meet with you and work with your team. I feel like it really you know, the old saying it takes a village is absolutely true. So I just feel lucky to be partners with all of you in this. So thank you.

Don  20:11

Thank you so much. And thank you for listening. We hope you find this exciting information valuable. If you have any topics or questions that you would like addressed, please email them directly to cwa@sbcss.net As always, we hope you stay well and continue to transform lives through education.